Magen David Adom

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas A Holocaust film about an unusual friendship between two young boys - one a concentration camp inmate, the other the camp commander's son. The benefit for American Friends of Magen David Adom unspools at 1 today at Cinema Paradiso, 503 SE Sixth St., Fort Lauderdale. $25; 954-760-9898 - Staff reports

Several members of American Friends of Magen David Adom were among the 150 people who gathered on Sunday for the dedication of an ambulance donated to MDA by 92-year-old Harvey Krautman, a resident at The Tradition on the MorseLife campus in West Palm Beach. Krautman donated the funds for the badly needed ambulance which will be shipped to Israel in the name of his beloved wife Anne, who recently passed away. The afternoon dedication ceremony began at the side entrance of The Tradition where the new ambulance was parked with a ribbon cutting by AFMDA and Krautman accompanied by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The White House may not be getting a female president this term, but a Hollywood woman is marking her own presidential path. Erica Solodkin has been elected as the first woman president of the American Friends of Magen David Adom Southeast Region, and it is a distinction she is proud to carry. "I'm so honored to have been chosen," she said. "To be the first woman is definitely exciting. I'm very proud to be the new president." As president, Solodkin will oversee regional projects and will communicate with the national board on efforts to support Magen David Adom.

The Israel Cancer Research Fund has launched a Florida chapter. The ICRF is a charitable organization in North America solely devoted to supporting cancer research in Israel. It has provided more than 2,000 grants totaling almost $50 million to cancer researchers whose laboratories are located in all of the leading research institutions, universities and hospitals across Israel. The organization's new Florida chapter recently had its first board meeting hosted by North Miami Beach residents Karen Weibe and Eva Prizant and its official launch event hosted by Palm Beach resident Sydell Miller.

Resident dedicates ambulance to Israel A fully-equipped lifesaving ambulance was dedicated to the people and state of Israel March 21 at the residence of Betty Cooper Wallerstein at the Sea Ranch Club in Boca Raton. Friends gathered and celebrated as Betty dedicated the ambulance in loving memory of her late husband, David, and their parents, Adolph and Victoria Wallerstein and Joseph and Adele Cooper. Commissioner Steven Abrams brought congratulations on behalf of the city of Boca Raton and commended Betty for her humanitarian efforts.

International leaders of the Red Cross are being targeted by a pressure group fighting for Magen David Adom, Israel`s disaster relief body. "Shameful and outrageous" are among the terms used by Operation Recognition, the pressure group, to describe the Israeli organization`s exclusion from membership in the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC is the world alliance of 137 organizations that care for those wounded in war as well as those injured in disasters. Rabbi Rubin R. Dobin of Miami Beach, international chairman for Operation Recognition, accuses the ICRC of giving in to pressures to keep the Israeli group out. He has promised counter-pressures, ranging from a "white paper" to legal hearings to congressional action.

With all of the ambulances that St. Andrews Country Club donors have sent to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency response service since the first in 1991, the Boca Raton community could have its own fleet. Late last month, the St. Andrews chapter of American Friends of Magen David Adom dedicated its 100th ambulance. Arnold Gerson, American Friends of Magen David Adom CEO in New York, called the donation "historic" and "unprecedented. " Gerson praised the chapter for its "commitment to the work of Magen David Adom for all these years.

Robert Watson, a professor of history at Lynn University in Boca Raton, will give an "Overview of Israel's 61-Year-Old-History and its Current Political Situation" on April 2 at a desert reception for American Friends of Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency medical network. The 7:30 p.m. event will be at a private home in Weston. To make a reservation for this complimentary event, call Ruth and Richard Gottlieb at 954-389-4504.

Yet another resident of Lauderhill's Forest Trace retirement community has stepped forward to help people thousands of miles away. Henrietta Abrams, 97, recently donated an ambulance to the American Friends of Magen David Adom. "I thought why [not]? I could give one big present, and maybe some lives will be saved," Abrams said. "I wish I had enough money to give another." The ambulance is valued at $125,000. Abrams is the third Forest Trace resident to donate to the American Friends of Magen David Adom (ARMDI)

The headlines here in the U.S. don't tell the day to day story, but in Israel's western Negev all eyes are on the sky. Just before Pesach, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip killed a farm worker in Ashkelon, as Palestinian groups in Gaza continue to fire mortars and missiles at Israel. After months of quiet, residents throughout the region are again anxious, knowing the Qassams are targeting them, their loved ones and their homes. "If not for Magen David Adom, no one could live in Sderot," a shop owner there observed.

Chalk up another ambulance for Magen David Adom in Israel donated by the residents of the Club at Boca Pointe. The country club community west of Boca Raton recently dedicated the fourth ambulance purchased through the American Friends of Magen David Adom with community-wide donations. "It's a wonderful model," Mark Glickman, AFMDA southeast region director, said. "It's not really happening to other communities, so we're very proud of Boca Pointe. " "Community ambulances are rare because it takes a lot of donations to make it work," said Burt Goodman, chairman of the Boca Pointe Chapter of AFMDA.

American Friends of Magen David Adom's Diamond Circle Hanukkah Gala featured ambulance dedications and honorees. The gala took place at Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center and raised $845,000. Four new Magen David Adom ambulances and a new Medicycle, MDA's three-wheeled motorbike, were dedicated and displayed at the event. Sponsors for the ambulances included Natalie and Bernard Kaplan, Edward and Menucha Meinstein and Gilbert and Minerva Rosenberg. Myrna Skurnick sponsored the motorbike.

American Friends of Magen David Adom's Diamond Circle Hanukkah Gala will include cocktails, dinner, and dancing — as well as honorees and ambulances. During the gala, which takes place on Nov. 24 at Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center, 20400 NE 30th Ave., Norman Levine, a certified public accountant who resides in North Miami Beach, will be honored with the Sally & Joseph Handelman Leadership Award, and Dr. Robert J. Entel, a Clearwater radiologist, will be the first-ever west coast Floridian to receive AFMDA's Humanitarian Award for his extensive work bridging the worlds of medicine and charity.

The Southeast Region of American Friends of Magen David Adom has a new director. Mark Glickman, a Boca Raton resident and a 35-year fundraising veteran with extensive Jewish nonprofit and private sector experience, became the regional director earlier this month. AFMDA supports Magen David Adom, Israel's national emergency response, ambulance and blood services agency, and its Southeast Region consists of southern states from Louisiana to North Carolina and works closely with the people in South, Central and Southwest Florida as its staff and offices are based in Hallandale Beach and Palm Beach.

With all of the ambulances that St. Andrews Country Club donors have sent to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency response service since the first in 1991, the Boca Raton community could have its own fleet. Late last month, the St. Andrews chapter of American Friends of Magen David Adom dedicated its 100th ambulance. Arnold Gerson, American Friends of Magen David Adom CEO in New York, called the donation "historic" and "unprecedented. " Gerson praised the chapter for its "commitment to the work of Magen David Adom for all these years.

More than 250 seniors, ages 55 to 95, from Miami to Lake Worth danced the night away for dollars at the American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA) dance that took place recently at the Gold Coast Ballroom in Coconut Creek. The host chapter was the AFMDA Ahava Richard Freedman founded in the late 1960s by Lillian Kaye and her late husband, Murray. The couple founded the L'Chaim Freedman Chapter in New York and started the Ahava chapter in Sunrise after retiring and moving to Florida.

The 200-member Israeli medical and rescue team that had been in Haiti to work in search and rescue as well as to provide urgent medical treatment in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, has returned to Israel. The team left more than 30 tons of medical equipment and supplies in Haiti to be distributed to tent cities throughout the country. Remaining in Port-au-Prince is Magen David Adom, Israel's Knesset-mandated medical first responder, ambulance and blood service provider and which provides all of the nation's pre-hospital emergency medical needs.

The slogan being used for years by American Friends of Magen David Adom, "Saving Lives in Israel," took on a new meaning when AFMDA hosted a blood drive at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv on May 12, and collected the 1000th unit of blood donated in the organization's organized blood drives in 2009. The milestone is all the more significant because it is double the number of donors that AFMDA had recruited at this time a year ago, and that it took until October to reach the 1000th donor in 2008.

An American Friends of Magen David Adom ambulance was dedicated on Oct. 16 in the names of Frances and Bernard Nenner of Parkland. Bernard, 104, and Frances, 96, donated $100,000 to the American Friends of Magen David Adom Aston Gardens chapter, which Bernard Nenner founded seven years ago with a few other residents of the retirement community. "Every time you pick up a newspaper, you read about killing and murder [in Israel]," Bernard Nenner said. "Instead of the money laying in the bank and paying no interest, I could do something with the money for a good cause.